We’ve seen several fun promotions recently for earning lots of miles and even sometimes elite status after accomplishing interesting challenges.
For example, a few days ago, we wrote about how you can earn up to 350,000 JetBlue TrueBlue points and Mosaic elite status for 25 years if you fly to 25 JetBlue destinations. Now, Turkish Miles&Smiles is entering the scene with its own promotion.
The terms and conditions make it sound easy at face value: Travel to six continents with Turkish Airlines and win one million miles.
But the devil is in the details. So, here’s a summary of what you should know before diving headfirst into this promotion:
- You must book and fly between June 27 and Oct. 27, 2025
- Eligible flights must originate from or transit through Istanbul
- Only scheduled flights operated by Turkish Airlines count
- The countries included in each continent are defined in a chart on this page
- Your frequent-flyer account for each flight must be set as Miles&Smiles before travel (so you can’t enjoy benefits from another Star Alliance status and then credit your flight to Turkish)
- Only arrival destinations count toward completing the required continents (so New York–Istanbul–Tokyo counts only as Asia, but New York–Istanbul–Tokyo–Istanbul–New York counts as both Asia and North America)
- Award tickets, corporate agreement tickets, group tickets, staff tickets and special passenger segment tickets (such as seafarer, medical and student fares) aren’t eligible for this promotion
- Tickets purchased with a promo code aren’t eligible for this promotion
- You must book through an authorized travel agency or the Turkish Airlines website, mobile app or sales offices
If you successfully visit six continents as defined by the rules of this promotion, Turkish will deposit the miles into your account between Nov. 1 and 15.
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That’s a lot of flying to rack up one million miles (and probably a lot more along the way). However, as TPG credit card writer Danyal Ahmed quickly noted, “At the saver level, this is 15 one-way business-class tickets between North America and Istanbul.” So if you think about it in those terms, you could walk away from this promo with a lot of potentially valuable award travel as your prize.
I am personally tempted by this promotion, especially since I travel as a digital nomad and have a lot of open space in my travel schedule later this year. Istanbul is also one of my favorite cities, so I don’t mind originating from the city for several trips if needed. However, it would be a bummer not to be able to use my Star Alliance Gold benefits that I’ve earned as an Asiana Diamond member, since I’d need to attach my Turkish Miles&Smiles number instead of my Asiana number to the flights for this promotion.
As someone who once took 18 flights in 16 days as part of a promotion that got me Oneworld Sapphire status for over two years, let me offer some advice if you’re considering this promotion: Read and fully understand the promotion’s terms and conditions before you plan and book your flights. One small misunderstanding or mistake could mean you spent a lot of money trying to achieve this promotion without reaping the reward.
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.